Police Report

I went back to Sibu Central Police to collect the report on my lost exam certificate. It was a nice sunny morning. The weather reminds me of Jude (one of my students) used to greet me, 'it's sunny day' instead of good morning, teacher or hi teacher whenever I entered the classroom in the morning to teach thematic English.

After had parked the car, I walked out and saw the new moon crescent in the morning bright blue sky next to the central police building.

I went straight to the 3rd floor as was instructed on the note given me and looked for room No. 3. A middle aged lady in the room was working on her old-type writer typing away undisturbed her glasses around her neck, she was like Jessica Fletcher on 'Murder, She Wrote'. On the door to the room No. 3 a piece of note hand-written cello-taped on the front door saying, 'please wait outside' followed by a line in Mandarin and Malay language a misspelled of the word 'jangan' with a missing 'n' in between (jagan).

I knocked at the door 3 times and the lady on her typewriter stopped to see who's knocking. She lift up her head, put on her glasses to see...

After had passed her the collection note, I was asked to wait outside where the chairs are provided and she went back to her typing. Few minutes later the door opened, she stuck out her head from the partially opened door, her voice hoarse as she ordered, 'please go back to the counter downstairs and ask for another copy of the report'.

Obediently I went although I was thinking, shouldn't this a job of the officer downstairs to make sure all reports reached the officer in charge safely?

Nevertheless, everything was done quick and fast and the payment of RM2 was done outside the door of room No. 3 officially.

I met a guy, he sighed to himself when I saw him. As he walked into the lift his eyes fixed on the piece of police report he was holding, seeing that I then asked him what he was reporting. He looked perplexed, worried but answered, 'I've lost my laptop'. 'Can it be claimed?' I asked again. He sighed and fixed his eyes back on the paper. I remember I lost a laptop to a car thief incident, made a police report but nothing can be done according to the officer unless I've insured my laptop.

Fill in the form for the application of copy of lost certificate- checked. Original copy of police report- checked. Money Order of RM10- checked and self addressed stamped envelope- checked. Sent them out this morning by courier to Putrajaya. I'm hoping to see the self addressed stamped envelope with the copy of cert returns back to me within seven working days.

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Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai!

Wishing all my Sarawakian friends who are celebrating Gawai,
GAYU GURU GERAI NYAMAI, SELAMAT ARI GAWAI!

Gawai Dayak or Harvest Festival falls on every 1st of June. As a Sarawakian and living in Sarawak, the land of plentiful visiting Dayak friends at longhouses is always a much looking forward to occasion every time at Gawai.

This time round, Gawai is a bit quiet. Not that we're celebrating it but like as usual we would be invited to longhouses to celebrate with friends who are celebrating. Due to circumstances we were unable to attend any of our friends' Gawai open house this time.

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Yesterday was a lovely day, I got the chance to go for a ride with a friend. Well, it was a Saturday. Can you imagine the traffic condition in the city? I was telling a friend, in another 3 years time, Kuching will be just like KL.

Last 13th April was my birthday, didn't have much to post about, no pictures of me blowing of candles or cutting cake. My camera died. I went to a friend's birthday bash and a friend asked, 'eh! why you're not taking any pictures tonight like you used to' :|

Nevertheless, a friend and I had a simple dinner at Hainan Cafe on my birthday.

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Hiatus

I realise about the hiatus on my blog lately, not that I've been busy or I've nothing to blog. I've not been writing craps that much like I used to before. I take less photographs these days, I go out less often and I realise I haven't been driving out anywhere the whole of this week I've been staying at home nursing my own poor health is one of the reason I'd prefer to stay away from socialising and friends, places and people and I've been feeling exhausted and sleep deprived due to cough but PTL! it is slowly subsiding.

I'm at this state craving for spicy food I've been restricted from taking for the last 30 days due to tonsillitis and cough.

However, here ere are random pictures:

The fellowship of the ring: to see who can finish 1 inch thick streaky German bacon, two German sausages and two bullseye eggs (hi-man's breakfast). Neh!

Guess what is Julia doing? Trying some luck fishing for dinner?

The scenario.

Chilling out place at Stutong Indah.

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A simple Thing That Make Them Happy

At a kindy one day, a 3yo girl ran to her daddy with a piece of paper in her hand.
Girl: Daddy look! (showing her daddy picture she just coloured)
Daddy: Oh, this is beautiful.
Girl: I colour this and I also use school's crayons because we don't have crayons at home.
Daddy: Got-lah. Koko (brother) can share his crayons with you.

After hearing that, I looked that the 3yo and was amazed at how she presented her message to her dad. She's convinced her dad that she can colour and at the same time sending an indication to him she wants her own crayons.

Teaching 3 going on 4 to read isn't an easy job, their attention span at that age is short. Making them sit still for 15mins isn't easy either.

I was surprised when I was at a kindy to learn that at 2 they can be taught to recognise letters and sounds.

Here's a video - a simple thing that thrilled them.

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Back to work... back to life... back to the Cat City.... I am. At the moment I'm staying in an apartment with no Internet access, my previous Digi broadband EDGE's speed- crawled 'hopelessly' in the city and I'm contemplating on switching to streamyx broadband as I'm finding Celcom I'm currently using is slightly no difference at all.

Small living room apartment....

Dining and kitchen area..... will be back blogging soon or when I've got my streamyx broadband. This weekend on the Sunday however is the close of CNY or the Chap Goh Meh, I'm wishing all a wonderful Chap Goh Meh!

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Friday The 13th

According to Wikipedia, the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia (I'm not sure how it's pronounced though) I was chatting with some nuffnangers on nuffnang's chatterbox last nigh on the topic of the new movie "2012" when I was told today is Friday the 13th. I'm not a superstitious person who regard Friday the 13th as bad luck day.

But what made Friday 13th a 'thing' today was when a shallow-minded paraskevidekatriaphobia worker came and started cussing on how he was stopped by a team of road block traffic and followed by a team of JPJ for driving his old Toyota to work today. Alright, what's the big deal? We get that kind of attention for speeding sometimes. This worker however can't accept the fact that he's been stopped two times in a day and blaming it on the day by saying, 'today is black Friday, bloody hell!'. I was totally stupefied by the remarks.

I stepped out a little while after that and found.... guess what Lulu brought me today? Yeah, to ward off bad luck!

Lulu brought me mans briefs (she probably picked it up from somewhere) and placed it right in front of the door on the green rubber mat.

Grey colour man's briefs. You won't believe how many gifts I'd receive from Lulu each day.

While standing outside the house this morning, the neighbour's boy (about 4yo) that Lulu belongs to came out of the house telling me in Mandarin, 'pa ta pao kuo lai, pah' (please send Lulu back here) :| .....

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Exploring The Country's Biggest Market With A 6yo

My inquisitive 6yo nephew had just learned in school about fruits and vegetables and how important they are for good health.

When he saw the mangosteen pictures I posted on my facebook, he was fascinated and since then had been pestering me to buy him mangosteens.

I told him I didn't buy those mangosteens (on my facebook), they were the leftover a colleague bought on Friday evening. But had promised him we can scout around Sg. Merah Bazaar fruit stalls later in the afternoon for some mangosteens. So we went but unfortunately, we did not see any there.

Mangosteen, I rarely see the fruit nowadays. On our way out and after he's seen plenty of durian around he started asking if I know that durian is the king of fruits and mangosteen is the queen of fruits and amused me when he said in Mandarin, (translated) if the king of fruits is in season now then the queen of fruits should be 'following from behind', we should have plenty of both fruits side by side each other.

Nope, we didn't find any at Sg. Merah Bazaar this morning. He woke me up this morning just so that we can explore Sg. Merah bazaar fruit stalls for some mangosteens.

We walked from one stall to another. Finally after much contemplating, he decided we buy a watermelon instead.

Interested by variety of different kinds of fruit in one of the fruit stalls at Sg. Merah.

We stopped at one of the stalls where he saw a huge Jackfruit and out of curiosity he asked, is that fruit 'hung mau lieu lian' (soursop)?

We then proceeded on to Sibu's Central Market reputedly the biggest indoor market in Malaysia hoping we would find mangosteen there. We were disappointed after had walked one big round in the market including walking down from the car park's 8th level staircases and didn't get what we initially hoping to get.

Nonetheless walking with a 6yo to the market is something an exiting experience for me. It's interesting on the other hand to be at the central market around this time of the year where seasonal fruits are in season. Where dabai, durian, langsat, rambutan and many other seasonal fruits just filled up one third of the big indoor market. It's a must visit place if you are in Sibu.

We have plenty of 'Sibu Olive', buah dabai or buah kebayau in this time of the year too :)

My nephew thinks these are some kind of fascinating creatures. Sago worms, he was asking if he can have them to keep.

After had explored one third of the biggest market in the country, my nephew insisted we go home. He seemed like didn't really enjoy the crowd that much. At one point when he let go of my hand and walked on few meters away from me, I saw him turned around and found that I was not behind him, he looked scared. He told me later in the car, just now, when I didn't see, I was scared.

We came to the place where we first started and stumbled upon 'engkala'- rare exotic fruit, another one of famous season fruits in Sibu that I've not seen for ages. It took a while for me to decide whether to buy or not as I wasn't sure how to prepare the fruit. Only after, I'd asked the stall vendor and got a little tips from her on how to prepare the fruit that I paid RM3 for 8 engkalas. It's creamy-white and similar to avocado, but softer with a more delicate flavor.

Interestingly, I was told the fruit is prepared by rolling it around a basket, or hitting it with the back of a spoon.

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Uncle Dom

I haven't been going out much lately. Even if I do, it's mainly heading down to the ATM or the nearest Delta Mall for quick grocery shopping. Honestly, I've been having this kind of dizzy day where everything looks like is going to change and I'm not sure what am I to anticipate in... I may look like, I either don't care much or not interested in serious things neither is there a definition of what's going on at the moment. Argh!

Anyway, the night before (although have heard about Uncle Dom Cafe in Sibu for a while now, I seriously had no idea of the location) we went exploring the new cafe and decided to try out the new cafe.

It was until last Saturday that I knew it's actually located right opposite our favorite Sushi Tie restaurant, err... that's probably somehow explains I've not been around the town center for quite some time now. It's not a big deal anyway. However, looking at the large landscape photo inside Uncle Dom Cafe, you'd know basically the 'kopitiam' themed franchise-style establishment serve you some kind of well known signature coffee ie. Ipoh White Coffee or Old Town Coffee, I wasn't really sure but my guess was Ipoh White Coffee. But then, there is no different between the two Coffees to me. I ordered a cup of hot coffee which kept me awake all night. I find the new Uncle Dom Cafe do serve a fusion of Western and Eastern breakfast, lunch, and dinner on their menu. We had their 'Nasi Lemak', pork ribs rice and pardon me, the chicken chop was disappointing. Having been to several establishments that serve western food before, I find Uncle Dom's chicken chop tastes below par other than that, the Chinese food was alright :)

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An Old Film Camera, Nostalgics

I found one of my mom's old monochrome wedding photographs in an old family album, the photo is starting to wear off. I took a little effort to scan it hopping I'll have some times to fix the photo in photoshop one day and preserve the old photographs for future generations.

Remember the old film camera? I believe this photo was taken by a (probably) 30-40 year old classic film camera.

Remember the Konica's adv-phrase that goes, 'say Konica!' instead of 'say cheese!'?

I can still remember my first camera I ever had my dad bought for RM100, it wasn't a Cannon or anything (I can't remember the brand or its model) I'd used through my teenage years on all occasions and on every trip we made. I can still remember that film's vivid smell, few types of film brand name and how many snaps are there in a roll. Remember Kodak, Konica, Puji? I do, until things were turning digital. That limited snaps in a roll of film caused me to always bear in mind on what to snap that worth it. I can't remember how much is a roll of film now, but during my times they cost quite a bit for a student to afford. Thus I think for 24 or 36 snaps of film was expensive then. I treasured all pictures I'd taken even though most of them turned out blurry.

One incident I had was the film didn't roll and I'd took all 36 snaps blankly. During those times with film cameras, you'd usually hear a photographer saying especially before a special event- 'have you checked the film in the camera?'

It was our very first family trip to Cultural Village in Kuching. I just bought the 36 snaps roll of film for the camera, checked the camera and loaded the film unto it. Throughout our stroll in the village I was happily snapping away, I took fantastic views, posses with different things we see, it was an one exciting trip for me.

At the end of the day when I sent the film out to be developed, I was told the film in the camera didn't roll at all- all the while as I snapped away. I remember I did wind the film back into the canister but when it was pulled out to be developed the whole roll of film was blank- all 36 snaps of suppose to be developed precious family photographs, gone! It was truly disappointing to the maxxx then because it was our very first trip to the Cultural Village and considering the entrance fees of RM50 per pax, most probably we won't be making another family trip there again for a long-long time and I've lost every single memory we had there.

I wonder whether any photographers still using these kind of old film still photography cameras? Nostalgic for the good old days ya?

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Wimoweh! - (Uyimbube) You're A Lion

If I have a daughter I'd dress her up like a little princess. She would look just as pretty as ______. Ok, I volunteered myself to help my little darling nephew with his kindy recycled fashion show's costume as I was always known to be the creative one in the family once when I was a child. I used to think maybe the best profession for me was to be a professional fashion designer and had always dream of designing wedding gowns for wedding fashion show someday.

When my nephew told us about the fashion show his kindy is organising, without hesitating I agreed to help up designing a costume for him. Little did I realise, my epic failed because boys are boys. They don't like to be dressed. My nephew is a shy boy. I was pretty sure he'd refuse to wear a... errr.... a gown on my first attempt.

Ok. Next attempt is to create a costume that would look more like an animal for him. So, I came up with a brilliant idea he'd love- made him an animal costume from old newspapers. Basically I only fold, a little cut here and there and stick the old newspapers together...

Brilliant?

It wasn't easy though to persuade him to put on the costume. Literally, we persuaded him. We had to tell him, he'd look great and he's a great 'kong loong' (dinosaur) he insisted that it's a crocodile or a lion.

Anyway he made it to the stage together with the rest of the participants.

His classmates were impressed (simple childlike impression that goes, woww!) with the design and thought it was a cool one. The only thing was that we didn't manage to paint the costume into more like a real 'dinosaur'. I didn't manage to catch him on stage too as it was my impromptu visit to the fashion show after a mother I met and chatted with told me to stay and watch the show. My digicam was giving low battery after a few shots and the rest of the pictures were taken with my handphone.

You're a lion!

Here's an interesting hippo and the dog 'wimoweh' (I think it's not new anymore to many) it was on the top hit on Youtube sometime ago that embedding was disabled for the full version upon request. The simple three-chord ditty song, was an acclaimed song sung by The Tokens and written as Mbube by Solomon Linda.

It was seeing my nephew in the old newspaper costume on the stage that the song 'the lion sleeps tonight' popped up in my mind for an unexplained reason why. It was probably from an ad or the movie 'The Lion King' I once saw that reminds me of 'wimoweh' means 'you're a lion' as my nephew referred himself to when he put on the costume.

I later scouted the originality of the song that a little had surprised me, it was first sung in 1939 and has been around for ages and I only learned about it 3 years ago :|

Here's the brief history of 'the lion sleeps tonight' from the 3rd Ear Music Forum :-) "In The Jungle/lion sleeps tonight--- it is one of the great musical mysteries of all time: How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper. After six decades, the truth is finally told.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a small miracle took place in the brain of a man named Solomon Linda. It was 1939, and he was standing in front of a microphone in the only recording studio in black Africa when it happened. He hadn't composed the melody or written it down or anything. He just opened his mouth and out it came, a haunting skein of fifteen notes that flowed down the wires and into a trembling stylus that cut tiny grooves into a spinning block of bees wax, which was taken to England and turned into a record that became a very big hit in that part of Africa.

Later, the song took flight and landed in America, where it mutated into a truly immortal pop epiphany that soared to the top of the charts here and then everywhere, again and again, returning every decade or so under different names and guises. Navajo Indians sing it at powwows. Japanese teenagers know it as TK. ____________ Phish perform it live. Cybersurfers recognize it as the theme song of a hugely popular British website. It has been recorded by artists as diverse as R.E.M. and Glen Campbell, Brian Eno and Chet Atkins, the Nylons and ___ schlockmeister Bert Kaempfert. The New Zealand army band turned it into a march. England's 1986 World Cup soccer squad turned it into a joke. Hollywood put it in Ace Ventura Pet Detective. It has logged nearly three centuries of continuous radio air play in the U.S. alone. It is the most famous melody ever to emerge from Africa, a tune that has penetrated so deep into the human consciousness over so many generations that one can truly say, here is a song the whole world knows.

Its epic trans-cultural saga is also, in a way, the story of popular music, which limped pale-skinned and anemic into the twentieth century but danced out the other side vastly invigorated by transfusions of ragtime and rap, jazz, blues and soul, all of whose blood lines run back to Africa via slave ships and plantations and ghettos. It was in the nature of this transaction that black men gave more than they got and often ended up with nothing.

This one's for Solomon Linda, then, a Zulu who wrote a melody that earned untold millions for white men but died so poor that his widow couldn't afford a stone for his grave. Let's take it from the top, as they say in the trade."

So, when you hear the song plays again and again, remember Solomon Linda the Zulu tribesman.

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Perfect!

The lurker or lurkers emerged himself or themselves after many months of silence to proclaim the day of judgment upon me. Nick-named himself malice, meaning desire to harm others or to see others suffer. Malice's IP 124.82.23.79. I could link you based on many malicious acts of disguising and trolling to the case mentioned by Mr. Wee, 'many nicks and anonymous' which he claimed was me leaving comments on his blog.

And the coward 'tsk' linking itself back to my site with IP 115.135.42.229. Take my frank advice, if you have nothing better to say, bud, STFU! do not leave provocative messages cowardly using anonymous. So, don't play-play ya?

Here's a perfect picture. I'm talking about the poles. How perfect? You don't know but we do.

Here's how it actually look like at work. The tiny worker up the pole can be seen putting the pole together. That's perfect!

On the other note, rumours has it why Malaysia refused to celebrate Malaysia Day on 16 of September was because when Malaysia was formed on that day, Malaya together with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined together and agreed to pick 16 of September which is also Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's birthday to form Malaysia. Thus Malaysia was born, Singapore pulled out later from Malaysia and formed Independent Republic of Singapore.

The west Malaysian however acknowledged the day as when Malaya changed its name from Malaya to Malaysia but refused to celebrate it as Malaysia Day as it's also the birthday of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, he is 86. Happy Birthday to you!

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Quilted Blanket

Today is a special day for someone I've known for a long time, he's marrying his sweetheart on 090909! Congrats!

patchwork or quilting was my ever favorite pastime or rather was my favorite way to generate extra income. I had several patchwork quilted bedding for myself when I was in Kuching, a complete set of a bed sheet for queen size bed, few pillow cases and a pink blanket, I loved my bed to bits and there was always something very special about the quilt pattern especially my pink blanket that literally warms my heart. Unfortunately, when I was away on a holiday, I left my bedroom unlocked, as usual. I came back from my holiday and found my pink blanket missing. Apparently, I was told we had guests to the house when I was away, my bedroom was used by one of the guests.

There were times, out of enthusiasm and passion for patchwork, I even made a few baby blankets for colleagues and friends' kids and newborn which in return, I received complements here and there. It's one time consuming work but to be honest, the fun is always there.

To have guests, accommodating relatives and close friends to the house during school holidays or just a visit is our Asian culture. That's why we often have spare blankets, fordable beds or sleep mats at home for guests. Among many patchwork quilted blankets we have, I found this (pic) extra ordinary quilted blanket made of patching pieces of 'Perguruan Rajang' print fabric. I believe they were from the training teachers' baju kurung (Malay traditional female costume) for the Perguruan Rajang, Maradong or Rajang Teacher Training College students my mom sewed for some of them once upon a time.

My niece finds this picture funny:)

Not to waste whatever there is, she turned the small fabric into a quilted blanket dual layer with cotton fabric to cover the other side of the blanket. It warms me up at night!

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Erection...

Erection, I'm talking about monopole erection, is the second last stage of work till completion of the construction of 33kv transmission line at Rantau Panjang (Sibu). They are 40 monopoles all together to be erected and the erection work was scheduled to be completed before the Raya break next week.

That reminds me of, Raya is just a week away.... how time flies! And it's going to be that time of the year for lots of Rendang and Ketupat again! :)

Work in progress.

This is a narrow stretch of road to Teku. The work has somehow caused traffic congestion in this area but it won't be long. A reminder, if you're thinking of heading towards Teku, try to avoid this road at peak hours.

I always enjoy watching how they erect those poles one by one... it's so scary when the machine lifts up the poles, so high and it's a dangerous construction area to bear in mind, last...

it's finally erected!

Next, the stringing...

However, I had always wondered where Rantau Panjang old airport is (yeah, I know it's weird) until today after had read on someone's blog.

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The Jong's Crocodile Farm My Niece and Nehpews Visited Recently

Sometime ago a 13yo niece of mine was telling me she would like to have a blog like mine one day or something more like an online scrapbook for photos she's taken and memorabilia.

My sister's family went to Sri Aman during the recent school holidays and made a trip to Jong's Crocodile Farm and Zoo with the children. I can only guess that my 6yo nephew was truly enthralled with animals by the way he described some of the animals he's seen at the zoo to me.

Eerr... what's this animal again? Wildboar?

I wasn't there with them, so I can't really tell how did he react towards animals he's seen for the first time, but as he would normally be enthralled with something new especially animals, I guess my guessing is based on children are often excited due to natural learning mechanisms in them :)

A porcupine. My niece took all the photos with her SE phone-cam.

Meet Mr. Bujang Senang. His crooked teeth give him an intimidating appearance.

A friendly baboon, I guess.

I think this is a peacock. But it looks a bit miserable.

Honey bear sleeping soundly and undisturbed.

More sleeping porcupines shot.

This one's interesting, I wonder what happened to this poor fella's tail. Crocodile with no tail?

Green.... carmeleon/monitor lizard? Whatever it is, it does look like a green monster. Wait, it's iguana!

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